Merry Christmas!

Here are a few Christmas pictures...

I'll write more about everything after our vacation!

8 months old

"Eight months old.  Wow, time flies.  So over the past month, I've been very busy.  I still love going to school and love my teachers.  I have lots of friends at school but I am the only baby (minus the new girl) who isn't crawling yet.  It's not really a big deal except sometimes when mom, dad or the teachers put me down on the floor near my friends but then they all decide to go somewhere else and play with another toy...then I'm left all by myself and I don't like this.  And it takes me a while to fall over and then roll over to them.  By that time, they've all crawled back to where we all were originally.  Mom says that maybe this will help motivate me to crawl but I don't know.  I'm just not so sure about it.

 I still love to eat.  My favorite food other than a bottle is prunes with apples and oatmeal.  I eat it every morning for breakfast because it is so delicious!  Sometimes mom says I smack my lips and make sounds like 'mmmmmm mmmmm' but I just can't help myself.  I recently started eating puffs, which are like Cheerios for babies.  They dissolve in my mouth (or my slobber covered hands) but I still have to chew on them a bit.  When mom or dad put them on my tray, I like to try to grab them all as fast as I can and then hold them in my hands and hope they give me more.  Hehe.  Sometimes I lean over the side of my highchair and feed them to Gus.  Mom always seems to catch me doing this and tell me no.  I think it's because I giggle and Gus' collar jingles and she just KNOWS that we're doing something we shouldn't be doing.  She's so smart sometimes.

This past weekend my big sister taught me how to wave, and now I do it all the time.  I do it a lot with Katie and mom and dad.  I am starting to do it more and more with everyone I see.  Mom thinks it is funny that I can do it with my right hand alone, but if I try to wave with my left hand, my right hand goes automatically also.  Mom got a picture of me waving to her this afternoon in my Santa suit from Grandma Becky. 

Well, that's about it for now.  I think it's time for bed since I have been refusing to nap at school during the day.  I usually take a good nap when I get home from school in the afternoon, but mom and I ran last minute errands today and there was just too much stuff to look at for me to possibly think about sleeping.  So I guess I'll go to bed early tonight instead.

Hugs and kisses to everyone!

Love, Nat"

Holiday Music, 5th Grade Orchestra-style

We have a Sony Bloggie (video camera) that we bought just before Natalie was born.  It is small, sleek and super easy to use.  We've captured some great videos with it since April but every time we plug it in to our computer, the whole computer crashes.  I think we keep forgetting this because we keep taking videos with it and then not being able to watch them.  We've got to get this figured out.

Katie's first cello concert was on Monday night.  She practiced a lot and was very excited.  She even earned the chance to play a cello duet with one of the other girls in 5th Grade Orchestra.  She wasn't nervous one bit.  She got up there and played her heart out with her fingers.  We were all very proud of her and can't wait until her next concert!

Mr. Zheng and all-smiles Katie, after the concert.  This is the only still photo we took.  The rest was captured on video.

Katie's first cello duet

This post is very very late in being uploaded, but at least I am getting it uploaded before Katie's second cello concert on Thursday.

This was Katie's very first cello duet with one of her friends at school...

http://youtu.be/VwK2wUQn6Cw

December sillies

Here's just a few pictures of Natalie from earlier this month...

Who needs toys? Not these two...

Daddy came home and needed to change his clothes.  So he took Natalie into the closet with him while Katie and Whitney finished setting the table for dinner.  He came out with Natalie in a tupperwear bin ... racecar style.

They zoomed around the house (terrifying Gus who is now hiding under the kitchen table) and Natalie squealed with delight.  Suddenly, Katie wonders if there is a tupperwear bin SHE can fit in.  Now we have two kids in tupperwear bins ready for racing around the house.

Daddy zooms around with Katie (much faster, of course) and she is giggling.  Natalie looks sad.  Daddy can only drive one racecar at a time though.  So Katie rearranges her long legs and makes room for Natalie in her car. 

 After they fastened their seatbelts, daddy takes off and drives them both around the house. 

 Gus is still under the table.

Baby Bathville

Natalie LOVES taking baths.  She's loved them ever since we put her in the big girl bathtub.  She likes to lounge and kick or situp and splash with her arms. It's really a shame she doesn't need a bath every night because she loves them so much.

During the rinse cycle, she loves to try to catch the water in her mouth when it "rains" on her head...

And she loves to look at the faucet and then stick her face in it.  She closes her eyes and opens her mouth and then drinks the warm water.

7 months

"It's that time again...mom woke me up singing a different song than the usual 'Good morning to you' song that she and daddy both sing when they come wake me up.  Then she laid me next to Marty and took a few pictures.  Must be my monthly birthday again.

Now that I'm 7 months old, I'm doing a lot more things. 

I love to talk.  I talk all day long but no one seems to understand me, except when I say 'ma-ma' or 'da-da.'  They really get excited when I say those two things, so I've started trying to say them more and more because I like it when momma and daddy are happy.

I love to eat.  There has only been one food that mom and dad fed to me that I didn't like, peas.  Yuck.  They were so gross that after 3 bites, I gagged and threw them all up.  At school they had a pizza party and even our class of babies was invited.  My teachers let me taste pizza sauce and chew on an english muffin.  I didn't get to eat the muffin but it sure was fun and new to chew on it for a while.

I love to sit.  I have become an excellent sitter and I like it because I can see everything that is going on around me.  I can lean really far in front of me to reach things on my play mat and this is fun, but sometimes I lean too far and it makes me puke. I have not figured out how to get from laying to sitting though, but once I can...that will be very cool.

I love to bounce in my exersaucer. Mom and dad call it 'the babysitter' because it keeps me completely entertained and allows them to do things without having to keep track of me.  Dad calls it 'the pooper' because it helps me poop.

I love my sister and Gus.  Both of them can always make me smile, even when I'm very upset (which is extremely rare).  Katie likes to talk to me and read to me and play with me.  She even helps me eat sometimes.  She likes to make funny faces at me and talks to me when we're in the car together.  Gus likes to creep onto my play mat when mom and dad aren't looking (I don't think he's supposed to sit on my play mat) and inches his way up behind me so that we're back to back.  It is nice because we keep each other warm and we entertain each other. 


That's all for now.  It's nap time.  I take 3 naps a day (30-45 minutes each) and sleep 11-12 hours at night.

Hugs and kisses to all!!"

Saturday morning in the park

We attempted to go to the Arizona Balloon Festival but got there too late (815am) to see any balloons.  So we decided to go to a park that we don't normally visit.  Natalie tested out the swings for the first time...and pretty much loved them.  We waited to take a train ride but then it ran into nap time and we had to go home.  We'll try the train again sometime...

Hangin in the swing AND getting kisses from momma makes for a very happy baby.

Silly girls

Katie seems to love being a big sister and in return, Natalie gives Katie LOTS of smiles.

Cute overload

What's cuter than a baby or a puppy???  A baby AND a puppy.  I swear I didn't pose them for this.

Fall at the Casa de Hayes

Here are some miscellaneous photos of what Fall looks like at our house... including Sally teaching Gus to swim.

Halloween 2011

Halloween on a school night is always very rushed.  By the time homework gets done, dinner is finished and costumes are perfected...Scott and I are exhausted and there are already kids at the door.  Ugh.  So there aren't many pictures of Halloween this year.

Big sister sock puppet

Katie always manages to get lots of smiles from her little sister.  This sock puppet episode was no exception...

http://youtu.be/uxHAs54KpG8

Farewell to Sally Wally

On October 18, 2011, we had to say goodbye to our beloved friend and family member, Sally Wally. 

Thanks for all the lessons you taught us along with all the good times, companionship, love, laughter, memories and slobbery kisses.  We are very sad you had to leave us Sally and we miss you every single day. The house doesn't feel the same without you here.  You were a damn good dog!

First Water Trail. Superstition Wilderness Area, Mesa, Arizona.  February 2009.

6-months old - Baby bathtime

Natalie loves bath time and playing in the water.  She loves the water on her face, splashing in the water and being in the tub.

http://youtu.be/u_SdVClv1kY

Half Year Birthday!

"So mom told me today that I'm six-months old.  I'm not sure what that means, but she sang me a different song this morning and then took my picture before changing my diaper. 

I've recently started babbling lots of sounds and there are 2 specific sounds that I make that mom and dad get really excited about.  One sounds like "mom-ma" and the other is "da da."  They always smile when I make these noises, so I try to make them a lot.

I am starting to sit up on my own really well.  I don't really topple over anymore unless I lean too far for a toy.  And when I do topple over, I don't really care.  I just start "baby snowplowing" to try to get the toy."

Natalie's First Hike

We took Natalie out to hike with Grandpa.  She loved it.  Now that the weather is cooler, we'll need to start planning more hikes with Natalie and eventually with Gus too.

The Arrival of Augustus (Gus) Hayes

Upon our return from New York, we made a quick detour at the airport to the cargo area.  Ever try to find the cargo area at your local airport?!?!  What a nightmare.  Anyway, we eventually found the cargo area and were able to pickup our newest addition to the family, the Yellow Lab formerly known as Tank.

Although it all appeared to Katie that we got lost, the arrival of Tank was well planned.  Whit's Aunt Carol and Uncle Randy and their two labs, Jack and Zoe had a small first litter of pups in August.  As I recall, Tank got his name because he was the firstborn pup and also the largest pup of the liter.

On the way home from the airport we contemplated what his new name should be.  Eventually we settled on Gus as this was the name of the polar bear we met in the Central Park Zoo and also the name of the goofy fat mouse in Cinderella (duh...Gus Gus).

As soon as he entered our home, Sally began showing him the ropes.  She showed him where the back doors were so he could wait to be let outside to go potty; she shared her bed with him; she sacrificed nearly all her toys for Gus to chew on and play with; and she helped him learn to sit.  Nearly every time we told her to sit, he looked over at her and then imitated her.  As such, Gus is now weakly trained to SIT on command.  Gus spent nearly every minute of his first week at the Casa de Hayes chasing Sally and trying to play with her. 

NYC meets Katie

For Katie's fall break, we decided to take her to visit Aunt Adrienne in New York.  So Whit and Katie flew to New York on Thursday while Scott was at a work conference in California.  The girls enjoyed a girls night and went out to dinner and then watched the 80's classic movie, "Girls Just Want to Have Fun."

Friday morning the girls hit the streets and did a ton of walking. Katie was a super trooper and kept up all day.  We just had to carry around a few extra apples and stop periodically for food to help her re-charge.  We walked along the Highline, through the Chelsea Market and in and out of almost every "spinny" door in New York.  We went up to the Top of the Rock for some spectacular views of the city.  Scott arrived around 6 ... just in time to get the key to the apartment as we whisked off to see Mary Poppins at the New Amsterdam theater.  While the girls soaked up all the spoonfuls of sugar they could, Scott spent the evening touring the Chelsea bars with Adrienne's wonderful friend, Maria.

Saturday morning we were up early and on the first ferry out to the Statue of Liberty and then toured Ellis Island.  Katie had a headset and listened to the narration for kids at her own pace.  She learned a lot and was very patient with Scott and Adrienne (the two slowest museum tour guests ever).  After lunch we headed back to town and walked around Battery Park, Ground Zero, through Wall Street (and the protests) and halfway across the Brooklyn Bridge.  Again, Katie was a fantastic trooper.  Our last stop of the day was the Tenament Museum, which was very interesting.  The tour group was small and Katie was the only kid, so she got special treatment from the tour guide.  She even jumped in and asked a few great questions (i.e. where did the people who lived here take a bath?!?!).

Sunday was a little more laid back.  We slept in ... Katie until 9:30 and then headed to The Plaza Hotel and Central Park.  The 3 of us planned a surprise trip to the Central Park Zoo to see their resident Polar Bear, Gus.  After walking around the park for a while at a lazy pace, we ended up in the zoo and boy was Katie thrilled to see that there was a polar bear exhibit.  After the zoo, we visited FAO Schwartz, Tiffany's and the St. Regis Hotel where the rude bartender promptly escorted us out of the bar as Katie was underage (duh). Sunday night ended with Thai food at Maria's and then "Honey I Shrunk The Kids" on the couch at Adrienne's wonderful apartment.

Thanks to Adrienne and her marvelous planning, we had a fantastic time and wish we could have stayed longer. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU.

Click on the photo below to see all the photos at your own pace.